Race For Governor An Important One

STEPHEN L. GOLDSTEIN COMMENTARY

May 22, 2009|STEPHEN L. GOLDSTEIN COMMENTARY

Lately, the buzz has been all about the Crist-Rubio rivalry to replace Sen. Mel Martinez. The governor announced his candidacy to a chorus of high-profile endorsements, including a whopper from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. Charlie always has his ducks lined up before he makes a move.

Predictably, Rubio supporters have cried foul, especially because our wildly popular governor has been labeled/libeled a traitor by rabid party loyalists - Marco's minions - for taking federal stimulus money to help our sagging economy and billions-in-the-hole state budget. Like all things Republican, the race for the U.S. Senate is shaping up as another battle between rigid ideology (Rubio) and pragmatic politics (Crist).

However, Crist-Rubio is just a sideshow. The most important political stage is the race for the governor's office, which affects our lives more than any U.S. Senate seat. Obviously, in Charlie's ever successful career calculus, it made sense for him to aspire to be one of 100 in Washington instead of numero uno in Florida. Those of us he has abandoned have to pin our hopes for a decent future on a sea change in the state capital.

Florida is out of money and, by all appearances, new ideas, at least from Republicans, to get us out of our fiscal funk.

The governor's race likely will boil down to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, against Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat.

During his 20 years in Congress, McCollum polished his right-wing credentials, especially on social issues. He has been fighting crime as attorney general, but nothing in his career qualifies him to know how to revamp the economy, which is all that matters these days. Unless he is willing to incur the wrath of his party's faithful, we already know his script: no taxes, lower taxes, no stimulus money, privatization, and every other Republican shibboleth. Yawn.

By happy contrast, Sink, the watchdog of state finances in her current elected position, is a former bank president and totally qualified to identify long-term solutions to offset a decade of absolute Republican control of state government and absolutely disastrous economic policies.